


And We Live in Dangerous Times

by clarityhiding



Category: Batman (Comics)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Daemons, Canon-Typical Violence, Daemons, Danger with a Capital D, Jason Todd is Red Hood, JayTimBINGO2019, M/M, One Shot, Soulmates, Tim Drake is Robin, Unconventional Daemons
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-08-14
Updated: 2019-08-14
Packaged: 2020-08-19 00:22:51
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,330
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20200648
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/clarityhiding/pseuds/clarityhiding
Summary: Jason Todd is back and he's angry. He breaks into Titans Tower with the intention of messing with the pretender a bit. Things don't quite go as planned and it turns out both Robins II and III are in for a surprise.





	And We Live in Dangerous Times

**Author's Note:**

> Issue tag for Teen Titans v3 #29. For Week 2: Soulmates of JayTimBingo 2019, I wrote a little unconventional dæmon fic! Thanks to ayzenigma and spazzterror for excellent beta help and Silver_Snow_77 for helping me with dæmon lore (it has been way too long since I last read HDM). ♥
> 
> For those who aren't aware, in His Dark Materials, dæmons are effectively animal-shaped physical manifestations of a person's soul, capable of human speech. Pre-puberty, dæmons can shift between various different animals, at puberty they "settle" into a single form that they'll hold for the rest of a person's life. While dæmons may touch other dæmons, people just _don't_ touch another person's dæmon (it's basically tantamount to molesting the person whose dæmon it is). Everything else presented in the story re: dæmons is my own invention.

Years of working with Bruce (or, more properly, working with Alfred) have left him with a flair for the dramatic, and he tears off his flimsy shirt, shrugs off his jacket and the rest of his outer gear as he shouts and rages, lets the anger flow through him. "Show me, Tim," Jason demands as he leaps forward at this boy, this pretender—his replacement. "Show me what you have that I _didn't_."

Tim ducks and dodges, flips and twirls—he's not at Dick's level of acrobatics, but the flair is there, and that's one more thing to hate, one more thing that this little shit had that Jason never got. A brother, a mentor, a friend.

The thought makes the churning anger in him flare and Jason swings out wildly through the smoke bomb the kid throws down, more focused on power than on precision as each of his punches is blocked and countered by the kid's stick. He should focus more on his game plan, focus on the fight and not the ranting—he thought he'd be able to get the kid off base psychologically, remind him of just what he is, another bird in a line, one more disposable teen sidekick for the big bad Bat. But Tim's had training too, knows how to tune out his opponent's ranting and raving, all the villain monologues.

Jason stomach twists and the taste in his mouth turns sour as he's reminded once again what side fate has forced him onto. The distraction is just enough that he forgets to dodge and gets a fist in the face. It's not a bad hit—hard enough to press his teeth into flesh, and his mouth fills with blood—but Robin III is tiny and all the training in the world can't make up for lack of muscle.

He counters the punch with a kick, sends the kid flying into a wall. Follows it up with a shove and a crack, and now Jason has the stick, the kid's on the floor, and the irony of the situation hits him—a crumpled Robin, villain standing over him with a metal weapon in hand, no chance of escape or help. He could stop here, could declare the lesson taught and keep history from repeating itself.

But why give second chances when he only ever got his after he was already dead?

Jason raises the staff, readying to do some real damage when black wings fill his vision. "Stop! Jay, you have to stop! You can't—"

"Danger, what do you think you're doing?! Get out of here!"

For a moment he's sure he said the words himself and then he realizes the pitch is too high, the accent too polished—

Jason inhales sharply, jerking backwards. "What?"

"Talia lied to us, Jay! She lied when she said Drake's dæmon hadn't settled yet, and she lied when she said she didn't know his dæmon's name!" his own dæmon says, black wings still fluttering as the raven forces him even further backwards. "Danger and me—we've been talking, and—"

"Wait—Danger?" Craning his neck, Jason glances around his dæmon at the Robin on the floor and—sure enough, Tim is slowly, carefully sitting up, wiping blood from his lip as another raven, just as big as his own, gently rubs its beak against his cheek. "Your dæmon's a raven named _Danger?_"

"Yeah, what of it?" Tim demands, tugging his cape around him like a shield. "I was a little kid and I thought it as a cool word."

"But that's—you can't…" It doesn't happen very often, but every now and then, two people whose dæmons have settled as the same animal meet, and it's generally taken as a sign that they're similar enough in nature that, if they get to know each other better, there's a good chance they'll fall in love. At least for a little while.

His shoulder sinks down as weight settles there, claws digging into his tunic. "Tim's dæmon settled the month after we came back, before he ever went to see Bruce about Robin. You can't fight him, Jay."

"It's just superstition," Jason hisses, reaching up to stroke the raven with his free hand. Already he can feel the raging anger draining out of him, just as it always seems to do whenever he's touching his dæmon. "Superstition and coincidence."

"Oh," Tim says, and when Jason glances over the kid is staring at him, his chin twitching just enough to make it clear his eyes are darting between both dæmons behind his mask. "I didn't realize—your dæmon's a raven?"

"Yes," Jason grits out. He wants to leave it at that, but his dæmon is prodding him, nudging his cheek insistently. Apparently keeping secrets isn't an option today. "A raven named Danger."

"_Oh_," Tim gasps, his cape falling away as he sits up even straighter.

It happens, sometimes, that highly compatible people with the same dæmons meet and fall in love. But it's only in fairy tales and ridiculous, over-the-top romcoms that those dæmons also happen to have the exact same name. Never in real life. At least, not as far Jason's ever heard.

On his shoulder, Danger leans forward and caws. "We're very sorry. It hasn't been easy, coming back. We didn't realize, or else we never would've hurt you." The birdbrained idiot pokes Jason in the cheek and hisses, "Apologize!"

"What? I'm not going to—" Another jab, this one not nearly as gentle as as the previous one. "Sorry! I'm… sorry," he growls, looking everywhere but at the boy on the floor. "For hurting you and shit."

"Sorry I took your place," Tim says, his own Danger hopping up his arm to his shoulder before he shakily pushes himself to his feet. "Not sorry I socked you in the jaw. You had it coming, ass-wipe."

Jason whistles, taking a tentative step forward to offer back the staff. "Does Batman know you use language like that, Timmy?"

Tim takes the staff with a grateful half-smile, using it now as a cane to support his wobbly legs instead of as a weapon. "No, but since there's apparently a whole lot of stuff Batman's never felt like sharing, I think I deserve to have some secrets of my own."

It occurs to Jason that the coincidence of their dæmons is something that's just as much a surprise to Tim as it is to him, which is definitely strange considering any number of people who could have told the kid about it before now. "That's… fair," he agrees.

Tim gives him a look, long and searching and steady, then slowly nods his head. "Right. Infirmary so we can patch up, and then we're having a nice long talk. I may not believe in all that hooey about soulmates, but you gotta agree it's weird that our dæmons are the same and share the same name."

He wants to protest, wants to turn tail and run before any of the other Titans return or recover enough to find him here—but on his shoulder, Danger is prodding him to follow Tim. Considering his dæmon's been the one solid and reassuring constant he's had since emerging from the Pit, it's probably in his best interest to go along. "Fine," he grumbles. "Though you better not be holding out for another apology, because one's all you're getting."

"Sure." Tim pauses in the doorway, glancing over his shoulder at them, and smiles. "And Jason? For what it's worth, I'm glad you're back."

* * *

Donna and a number of reserve Titans arrive at the tower hours after it's been compromised, summoned by Vic and Gar when they finally woke. "Raven was asleep in her bed, but Robin was here all alone. No one's heard from him in hours," Vic says, and Donna's heart is in her throat because she's heard rumors from Dick about what's been happening in Gotham.

The cameras for the kitchen are offline, so that's where they head first, beside themselves with worry. Robin isn't like most of the rest of them—he's delicate and all too human, and when Donna thinks about the last boy to wear that mask and carry that name, her heart aches.

The tableaux in the kitchen seems practically domestic when they burst in, all their attention immediately focussing on the younger of the occupants. "Tim," Starfire gasps, "are you alright? Both Victor and Garfield were attacked and—"

"I'm _fine_," he insists, batting away her gentle, concerned touches and turning to glare at his companion, who doesn't even have the decency to look ashamed. "You attacked them? You said you just knocked them out, you didn't say anything about _attacking_ them!"

"Knocked out, electrocuted. Eh, same thing," he says, though the raven perched on the chair back beside him leaves off grooming to poke him in the shoulder.

Starfire freezes, apparently noticing the stranger for the first time. "Who…?" Her green eyes go huge and she practically drags Robin out of his seat as she pulls him close.

"Rob, why's your dæmon _touching_ the guy who attacked us?!" Gar demands, reminding Donna of the rest of the crowd in the doorway with her. The crowd that hasn't heard the same rumors she has, that doesn't recognize the second person at the counter because it's been so long. Somehow, for her, it feels like it was only yesterday.

"Oh," she says, sounding startled, her eyes darting between the stranger and the raven dæmon. "It's because it's not his dæmon, is it, Robin?"

Extricating himself from Starfire's overly enthusiastic protection, Robin nods and lifts his arm, staggering slightly when his own dæmon flutters over from atop the fridge to land on it.

"Someone who broke into the tower and attacked us is Rob's dæmon-match?" Gar demands.

"To be fair, he attacked me too," Robin tells them. "Until his Danger talked to my Danger and stopped him."

Raven hisses, her eyes sparkling in the dark of her hood. "A double-match? That's rare."

"But not unsurprising," Donna says quietly. She'd always wondered about that, wondered at the choice of Dick and the others to keep this newest bird in the dark about the connections between him and his predecessor. "Especially considering that this is Jason Todd, the second Robin."

"Wonder Girl," Jason says, inclining his head slightly.

His fingers dig a little deeper into his dæmon's feathers, and she wonders if there's a grounding effect for him as well. Ever since her return to Earth, she's found it difficult at times to remember that she is Donna Troy, daughter of Hippolyta, sister of Diana. Whenever she runs her fingers through Anesidora's soft fur, she remembers and is recalled once more to herself. While she doubts he suffers from quite the confusion of identity she herself has been put through, it would not surprise her in the least to learn that Jason has his own difficulties with his return to life.

"It has been many years, my friend. I am glad to see you well once more," she tells him, and it is not a lie.

Robin snorts, taking a cautious step towards Jason and reaching out to rest the tips of his fingers on the other boy's shoulder. "I don't know about 'well,'" he says. "But with the right kind of support, we're willing to give it a go."

Looking at the two of them, fierce and determined to prove the world wrong in more ways than one, she doesn't doubt that's true.

* * *

Eventually, they escape to Tim's room. Vic and Gar aren't happy about it, but Donna says to let them be, and there must be something in her voice because they don't force the issue.

Both Dangers are making do with the perch bolted to the wall when he shuts the door, but Tim suspects it's only a matter of time before Jason's dæmon is back on his shoulder exerting his calming influence. For now, he sits on the edge of the bed, waits to see what Jason will choose to do. Unsurprisingly, he takes the desk chair.

"They're going to tell Batman and the others," Jason grumbles, but he seems to settle somewhat when his Danger shoots him a look.

"Is that such a bad thing? Bruce and the rest—they're worried about you. You nearly killed the Joker," Tim tells him, striving hard to keep his tone even and calm. That, more than anything aside from Danger's touch, seems to help to keep Jason even-tempered.

"I should have," Jason growls. "He deserves it. Murdering scum—!"

"Maybe. But are you the one who needs to do it? For that matter, is Bruce?" Tim leans forward, watching him. "I heard about the complicated plan you had—or, most of it at least. If it was really about making the Joker pay, you wouldn't have gone to so much trouble."

"What do you know—!" Jason demands, surging up it of his seat and flying at Tim. He stops at the last minute, clearly confused by Tim's own lack of reaction.

On the perch, both dæmons have gone absolutely still.

"I know that people I trusted implicitly have been lying to me by omission for years," Tim says softly. "That when they thought you might be back, Bruce and Dick went out of their way to make sure I stayed as far away from Gotham as possible. That not even Alfred said anything, even though they must have all been thinking it, every time they saw me, every time they saw Danger. No one ever thought that maybe I deserved to know that I'd had a double-match and he was gone."

Jason's shoulders slump and he sighs, collapsing onto the bed next to Tim. "Fuck. We both got screwed over by Batman, didn't we? What the hell are we gonna do?"

"Do things our own way, I figure," Tim says, flopping back to lie beside him. "With flair, style, and more than a little Danger."

**Author's Note:**

> [I have a tumblr!](http://themandylion.tumblr.com/) Come visit if you want ridiculous AU headcanons, rants about the English language (and/or educational publishing), history fangirling, adorable baby bats, and veeeeery occasional fanart. Also, because I am an actual human being with opinions of my own, sometimes I post or reblog things that reflect those opinions. If you can't handle the idea of someone existing in the universe and possessing opinions which differ from your own, you probably should not click on that link.


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